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Are we teetering along a fiscal cliff, about to plunge into recession? The answer varies quite a bit, depending on where you look.

The U.S. stock market has been quick to flinch and has corrected 7.2% in two months, with selling crammed into the post-election stretch and the Nasdaq Composite Index falling for six straight weeks, the worst streak since 2008. Just like that, the crop of stocks holding above their 50-day averages has shriveled from 83% to about 20%, near the lowest this year.

Economically sensitive energy and technology stocks were hardest hit, and are down more than 26% from their respective 52-week highs, notes Bespoke Investment Group. Small-cap companies most tethered to the U.S. economy were pummeled 22.5%, compared with a 15.7% thwack administered to big-cap stocks. Health care became the planet's most popular sector, according to the latest BofA Merrill Lynch survey of global money managers, while allocation to technology stocks shrank to the lowest level since March 2009.

Yet other markets seem far less flustered. The CBOE Market Volatility Index, or VIX, ticked up but remains well off the highsseen during the market slippage in June, or the summer of 2011.

The high-yield bond market looks even more serene. Junk-bond benchmarks pulled back last week but remain near 2012 highs, and the "yield to worst" -- the lowest potential yield that can be received without the issuers defaulting -- for the JPMorgan U.S. high-yield bond index is slumping near 6.85%, close to an all-time low and well below its long-term average of 10%. This suggests that the riskier, more-leveraged companies populating the high-yield market are valued at about 14.6 times earnings -- versus 12.4 times for the S&P 500, when historically the bigger, more stable lot in S&P 500 has commanded richer multiples at least three points higher. "Corporate credit is not immune to a fiscal cliff," says Thomas Lee, JPMorgan's U.S. equity strategist, who thinks valuations in the two markets must eventually converge.

Lunging at income won't help investors, since they must accept a declining yield for shouldering the same risk. No, the real beneficiaries are companies that can borrow lots of money at rock-bottom rates, all of which might come in handy for making acquisitions now that management has squeezed all they can from profit margins and the global economy, quite inconveniently, is still slowing. Yet if companies survive the fiscal belt-tightening ahead, their stocks -- not just the bonds -- should do well.

Under the plan, the new REIT will hold Penn's real estate and lease the assets back to the casino operator. Should REIT investors worry about owning an entity with one key tenant and the credit risk that might entail? "More typically, for example, a retail REIT might have its largest tenant be less than 10% of revenues," notes UBS analyst Robin Farley. Bigger, glitzier casinos like
Wynn Resorts wynn -0.8547829427583558%Wynn Resorts Ltd.U.S.: NasdaqUSD103.23
-0.89-0.8547829427583558%
/Date(1438376400309-0500)/
Volume (Delayed 15m)
:
2805805AFTER HOURSUSD103.217
-0.013-0.012593238399690013%
Volume (Delayed 15m)
:
41483
P/E Ratio
22.889135254988915Market Cap
10481665115.4807
Dividend Yield
1.937421292260002% Rev. per Employee
298350More quote details and news »wynninYour ValueYour ChangeShort position
(WYNN) previously looked at unlocking value through REIT structures but had not made the move because Wynn invests so heavily to make its properties hotspots and destinations. Still, Penn's announcement was enough to lure gamblers to start speculating on the next casino REIT.

Equinixeqix -1.2987472574138297%Equinix Inc.U.S.: NasdaqUSD278.91
-3.67-1.2987472574138297%
/Date(1438376400020-0500)/
Volume (Delayed 15m)
:
507541AFTER HOURSUSD278.91
%
Volume (Delayed 15m)
:
17023
P/E Ratio
N/AMarket Cap
15876394232.0865
Dividend Yield
2.4237209135563442% Rev. per Employee
646418More quote details and news »eqixinYour ValueYour ChangeShort position
(EQIX), which runs data centers and plans to become a REIT in 2015, had seen shares double this year. Despite a recent pullback, shares, trading near $179, still fetch 67 times 2012 profits, or 17.5 times its funds from operations. Excitement about a cloud-computing boom has given data-center REITs a fuzzy halo, even if the field is increasingly competitive and has low entry barriers -- they don't exactly require choice locations, optimal customer traffic, and shiny malls the way, say, retail REITs do. Companies also need to customize big boxes to suit new tenants, and big-tech customers increasingly want to bring their data centers in-house for better control. Clearly, investors expect big-tech companies to go over the fiscal cliff, but their data centers to remain and thrive.